J. Frank Parnell:Had a feeling someone might have posted that in the other thread, and of course they did. I think it's still probably the most heart wrenching thing i've seen in a long time, and epitomizes this event perfectly.

It really is powerful. Shows the passion and strength teachers have towards their students. It's irrelevant right now, of course, but I want to get that lady a day at a spa or something-- she's obviously been through absolute hell. And who knows if she still has a home to go to.

There is a no fly zone over the damage area. According to my friend who works for the weather service in the area, the news helicopters were drowning out victims cries for help.

Yes actually the news copters had live coverage of a police helicopter right over the area and by right over I mean 50 feet. The coverage I saw the news helicopters respected the no fly zone. Don't know for sure today was information overload for sure.

tinfoil-hat maggie:Yes actually the news copters had live coverage of a police helicopter right over the area and by right over I mean 50 feet. The coverage I saw the news helicopters respected the no fly zone. Don't know for sure today was information overload for sure.

My guess is that the police helicopter was either transporting a patient, or using FLIR equipment to look for survivors.

hardinparamedic:tinfoil-hat maggie: Yes actually the news copters had live coverage of a police helicopter right over the area and by right over I mean 50 feet. The coverage I saw the news helicopters respected the no fly zone. Don't know for sure today was information overload for sure.

My guess is that the police helicopter was either transporting a patient, or using FLIR equipment to look for survivors.

The thing that get my attention is all the water. I know that sounds strange but i live in the desert where there hasn't been a hurricane or a tornado or a tsunami in literally millions of years. I sometimes forget that I live on a world that is 70% water. Everybody else is looking at all the destruction and I sit here thinking, "day-um. Where did all the water come from?"

Uchiha_Cycliste:7th Son of a 7th Son: http://livewire.koco.com/Event/Live_Wire_Tracking_Oklahoma_storms_May _ 18 Live feed of KOCO. They are now reporting that they are adding the 40 expected dead to the official death toll. So now it stands at 91. Holy freaking god. :(

FlyingBacon:Uchiha_Cycliste: 7th Son of a 7th Son: http://livewire.koco.com/Event/Live_Wire_Tracking_Oklahoma_storms_May _ 18 Live feed of KOCO. They are now reporting that they are adding the 40 expected dead to the official death toll. So now it stands at 91. Holy freaking god. :(

I have a FB friend who works at Walgreens corporate office doing weather data mapping for them. I mentioned that he should pull up the data on store 9375 (in Moore on 19th St. just south of the tornado's path). He said that by looking at the path of the tornado, he's pretty sure it got destroyed.

/he also has access to the security cam footage, which is probably pretty intense//I was curious to know what the last anemometer readings were before they went off to Branson

thisisyourbrainonFark:dumbandilikeit: They had about 20-30mins of warnings, but not much you can do when faced with a storm of that size.

Obvious questions will be whether Plaza Towers and other buildings had underground storm shelters and whether building codes mandate them. Assume they will be now. But if the storm hit as quick as you say, mandatory shelters don't mean jack if you can't get to them.As another farker said, some of these suburbs look like Dresden times 10.

You got that right... a storm shelter will only work if you can get inside and the door locked on time. With a large group, you may not get everybody inside on time. Something to think about. If they do storm shelters drills many time a year, it would work better. That not counting those cheap neighbors that are trying to use the school shelters in a real emergency. That would slow things down. It would be a mess.

Olfin Bedwere:7th Son of a 7th Son: Looks like 91 from this specific twister.

It might be 200 by the time all is said and done

The TV warnings started about 40 minutes out. The sirens gave 16 minutes notice. The local TV guys did an amazing job of warning people that the only two options were to get below ground or flee. I can't imagine what the numbers would be like if this thing had hit at 3 a.m.